Opinion | By when? Time is short for Michigan’s ‘Top Ten in Ten’ education plan

Beginning in January 1994, when Gov. John Engler signed Michigan’s charter school legislation into law, the state’s new dual system of publicly funded schools placed traditional and charter public schools in competition for students and taxpayer dollars. Proponents of the law argued that competition would create incentives to improve the quality of education.  For a time, they were right. Achievement levels rose, but soon reversed.  

Michigan’s ranking on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) as measured by reading and math proficiency scores plummeted. Whether urban, suburban, or rural, Michigan students were falling behind. In 2005, Kids Count ranked Michigan 25th in the nation in education; by 2013 Michigan had dropped to 32 nationally. Two years later, Professor Brian A. Jacob would report that Michigan “ranks dead last in terms of proficiency growth since 2003.”

Responding to the crisis, the Michigan Department of Education (MDE)  launched a strategic plan in 2015 to make Michigan a Top 10 state in education within 10 years.  Followed in 2017 by a report from the 21st Century Education Commission and in 2023 by the report of the Growing Michigan Together Council, the strategic plan set in motion reform efforts aimed at transforming the state’s fragmented education system into a coherent, aligned system of governance.

With guidance today from Launch Michigan and support from the National Center on Education and the Economy, leaders in education, business and industry, labor, philanthropy, and the Legislature are bringing change to Michigan’s education system. Expanded programs for early childhood education, an Opportunity Index directing greater investment in at-risk students and a movement toward competency-based instruction are examples of current efforts to enhance opportunities for Michigan students. Still, academic performance continues to fall; Kids Count 2023 ranks Michigan 42 in education. 

Standing in the way of success is the failure of leaders, themselves, to agree on an aligned, coherent system of school governance and accountability with an emphasis on excellence. Without that, competition and uneven quality will continue at  the expense of Michigan students. This is perhaps most clear in the city of Detroit, where more than 80 charter schools compete with each other and with Detroit’s 100+ traditional public schools for dollars and students. Meantime, student achievement continues to suffer.   

At fault is a disjointed system of education in which overlapping responsibilities and political pressure allow schools to continue to fail, impacting the lives and limiting the future success of Michigan's students. Complicating matters for parents and guardians is a data reporting system that impedes their efforts to make informed school choices for their children. 

In contrast to the one-stop financial information made available in MDE's annual Bulletin 1014, Michigan’s MI School Data portal requires either a tedious school-by-school search for performance data or a daunting search through  spreadsheets at  K-12 School Data Files.  Either way, parents, rather than schools or the Michigan Department of Education, pay what economists call  "information costs,”  the time and money required to  make informed choices. The absence of well-designed, aggregated data limits knowledge of the academic status of Michigan’s publicly funded schools and obscures the depth and urgency of Michigan’s education crisis. 

Students, even the youngest ones, develop an allegiance to their schools, and that should be encouraged.  It is our responsibility, however, to make certain their schools are worthy of their allegiance and worthier still of their intelligence.  Despite differences, leaders throughout the state continue to seek a transparent, aligned system of governance and accountability, one that runs through every public school district and school. The question is, By when?